Ruth\u2019s Recompense\u2014Rth_4:13-22<\/p>\n
Upon a monument which has already outlasted thrones and empires, and which shall endure until there be a new heaven and a new earth\u2014upon the front page of the New Testament, is inscribed the name of Ruth. Of her came David\u2014of her came a long line of illustrious and good men\u2014of her came Christ.<\/p>\n
These were great honors. Little did this poor foreign woman think, when she left her native home to comfort the destitution of her mother-in-law\u2014little did she suppose when she humbly sought leave of Boaz\u2019s servant to glean in his master\u2019s field\u2014little when she labored homeward beneath the burden of her corn\u2014what high honors awaited her. She was by her marriage with Boaz raised perhaps to the highest station which a woman in Israel could at that time attain\u2014as the wife of one of the most prosperous and honored elders of Bethlehem. Henceforth nothing of comfort or honor were lacking to her; and, although her husband probably died before her, for he seems to have been advanced in years, the station she occupied as the mother of his son\u2014the heir of a two-fold inheritance, gave her a consideration no less honorable and exalted than that which she had before enjoyed. But, far above that was her interest in the great future\u2014in which was given to her that part for which the woman of Israel sighed\u2014which was the object of their most intense desires, excited by the ancient prophecies that from the seed of Abraham should come the bruiser of the serpent\u2019s head\u2014He in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed.<\/p>\n
But there was a cause. That cause was in the faith which God had enabled her, under most peculiar and trying circumstances, to exercise for his glory. To her was given the opportunity, which, in the even tenor of their way, few women in that age could find, of honoring God conspicuously by the greatness of her decision\u2014by the marked manner in which she forsook her paternal gods for Him, and cast in her lot with his people. It was no mean sacrifice. One of a nature so affectionate as hers, could not but feel the rending of the human ties, interwoven with most of her past existence, which that decision involved. She did not the less feel the ties she left behind, because she preferred those that lay before. So far as the human abnegation of self is concerned, women have made as great sacrifices for husbands\u2014for children\u2014for parents. They did their duty. She made her sacrifices for her mother-in-law\u2014a relation not usually of the highest or tenderest nature\u2014not so exacting as the others upon the score of duty. No one could have blamed had she, like Orpah, kissed her mother-in-law, and bidden her farewell. Many would have said that that was the right and proper decision for her to make. But Ruth thought not so; she failed not in the trial. God upheld her heavy heart. The words passed\u2014to be no more recalled, no more repented\u2014\u201cThy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.\u201d There is more in this than simple regard for Naomi, though so mixed with it as to escape much of the attention to which it is entitled.<\/p>\n
Ruth, brought up amid the low and limited ideas of the Godhead which idolatry presented, and knowing nothing better than the degrading worship of Chemosh, had learned from this Hebrew family the pure and grand conception of Jehovah nature, attributes, and government, which he had disclosed to the chosen people; and she had been privileged to witness most intimately the effect of these views in the consistent conduct and beautiful life of this pious household. This won her heart; she feared to have any more to do with idols. This God should be hers\u2014this privileged people hers, even unto death. That this is the right view of her conduct is drown by what Boaz said to her in the harvest-field\u2014which, indeed, evinces further that this is the impression concerning her which was generally entertained\u2014for Boaz knew her then only from the appreciation of her motives and feelings which was current in Bethlehem. \u201cIt hath fully been showed me,\u201d he said, \u201call that thou hast done to thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband; and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come to a people which thou knewest not heretofore. The Lord recompense thy work; and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boaz knew\u2014and we know\u2014better than Ruth herself did, that from the moment she had cast her world behind her back, and thrown herself in simple trust upon God, his blessing surrounded her and overshadowed her, and would not fail to be manifested in due time. They that honor Him, he would honor. And she had honored him by her faith, and He was bound by all his covenants of mercy, to honor her before men and angels. Boaz knew that godliness has the promise of this life, and of the life to come; he knew that they who truly fear God, and yield up anything for him, are entitled to look up for the recompense of reward, which in due time they shall receive to the full\u2014double measure, and pressed down, and running over\u2014if they faint not. Boaz knew all this when these words were uttered; but he did not then know the important part secured for himself in the providence of God in being the instrument of blessing to her, and of sending down, through her, blessings to distant generations.<\/p>\n
It is admitted that the blessings of the Old Testament have generally a more material character than there is any reason to expect since the Gospel brought life and immortality\u2014the blessings beyond the grave\u2014into fuller light than had previously shone upon them. Yet God is one; and he has at all times taken pleasure in the prosperity of his servants, although he has retained the right to judge wherein the true prosperity of all his servants lies. He has fixed our eyes upon the treasures of heaven, and has taught us to garner up all our hopes there. Yet he has not shortened his own hand, or precluded himself from allowing his servants so much temporal prosperity as may be safely permitted to them, without danger to their great spiritual inheritance. If he give trouble\u2014if he withhold prosperity, it is for our sakes; it is owing to the weakness of our hearts; it is because we cannot endure much prosperity without finding this world becoming too dear to us, and our desires less fervent for the treasures which he has laid up for those that fear him. No doubt, if man, who is but dust, were able to bear worldly prosperity uninjured, it might be otherwise; and if, indeed, there be those who, through his grace, are so strong in faith, so raised above the world, as to be able to bear an unbroken flow of temporal blessing\u2014that may be their lot, and in fact is their lot, so far as their real welfare will allow. Indeed, the words of our Lord himself respecting such as had left to follow him, furnish the best commentary and the most striking parallel to the words which Boaz addressed to the woman who had, according to the light of her day, left all, that she might come to put her trust under Jehovah\u2019s wings: \u201cVerily I say unto you, that there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or lands, for my sake, and the Gospel\u2019s, but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life,\u201d Mar_10:29-30. This is as ample a promise as any the Old Testament contains of earthly blessedness, for \u201cnow\u2014in this time,\u201d with the gospel addition of far more distinct and still greater blessings for the world to come\u2014the blessings of eternal life, than any which the Old Testament affords. This magnificent extension of the promise richly counterweighs the gospel limitation of \u201cwith persecution,\u201d as connected with blessing in this world. But, indeed, that also is part of the blessing; seeing that it pledges that God\u2019s fatherly care is to intermix the temporal benefits afforded to us with such trials as may be needful to hedge up our way, and to prevent the blessings of the life that now is from becoming too dear to us, and from leading us to forget that we are but strangers here, in the midst of all the enjoyments that may be afforded to us in this house of our pilgrimage.<\/p>\n
Autor: JOHN KITTO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ruth\u2019s Recompense\u2014Rth_4:13-22 Upon a monument which has already outlasted thrones and empires, and which shall endure until there be a new heaven and a new earth\u2014upon the front page of the New Testament, is inscribed the name of Ruth. Of her came David\u2014of her came a long line of illustrious and good men\u2014of her came … Continue reading ““221. RUTH\u2019S RECOMPENSE\u2014RUTH 4:13-22””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}